People's Democracy

Pinarayi Vijayan

THE service rendered by the Antony government to the people of Kerala during the last six months has been tremendous indeed. Through the total collapse of the public distribution system through the Maveli, Neethi and other cooperative distribution societies, to the shocking increase in the electricity and bus charges, this present government has shown itself more anti-people than any other government since formation of the separate Kerala state on November 1, 1956.

Apart from its anti-people attitude, the hallmarks of the Antony government have been its negligence and/or inability to evolve correct policies. Keener than their counterparts at the centre in destroying the public sector, the Kerala UDF and its government have privatised all possible public sector undertakings and even education:

• fees in all public utilities, government hospitals, schools and for the SSLC examinations, have been increased to an unbearable extent.

• it has decided to sell the Nedumbassery Airport;
• sanctioned the starting of unaided, self-financing professional institutions for medicine and engineering.

Its first act, in the name of overcoming a critical financial situation in the state, was to impose an excess burden of Rs 542 crore on the people, through its budget revision. Its widespread propaganda through the media and its own political platforms, that there was an "irretrievable financial crisis", and that Kerala would sink into the Arabian Sea if the necessary measures were not taken, was used to take from the people far more than was warranted by the situation, in effect to rob already impoverished pockets.

Then began the squeezing process.

• First electricity charges were increased, raking in a sum of Rs 800 crore from power consumers in the course of the running year.
• Then came the hike in bus fares, resulting not unintentionally in a drastic fall in the number of passengers using public transport, especially on the long distance routes. Travel by state buses for intra-state journeys was the most popular and a characteristic feature of Kerala. Now, the number of passengers travelling in the Super Deluxe, Super Express, Super Fast and Fast Passenger services of the KSRTC has reached an all-time low, while travel by private ordinary buses and trains has correspondingly increased. This is no accident, but the result of a conspiracy between the private bus owners and the UDF.

• the District Primary Education Programme, (DPEP) in force in nine other 'most backward states', is to repealed; the new VII standard textbooks withdrawn and the previous out-dated books reinstated. These textbooks were prepared after careful planning under the guidance of eminent educationalists and experienced teachers, wasting the more than Rs 3 crore spent in their preparation and publication. No explanation is given for this decision.

• The policy adopted regarding opening of professional colleges has been reduced to a trade-off, bypassing all the usual normative procedures regarding recommendations by experts on the need for such colleges, their location, number of seats, feasibility of employment of successful candidates, etc. Instead the government is recommending every application, particularly in the case of granting minority status wherever asked for. In violation of a Supreme Court order, 50 per cent of admissions would be reserved for the management. And lastly, all colleges would be self-financing and unaided.
• a Unified University Act, which would convert all universities into mere departments of the government, is hanging like a sword of Damocles over the autonomy of the different universities of the state.
• The government is further trying to show its subservience to the Sangh Parivar by ordering the dissolution of the Kerala Council of Historical Researches, a power it does not possess and a decision fortunately stayed by the High Court.

The government similarly tried to dissolve the District Cooperative Banks which met with the same fate, and was held 'not in order' by the High Court. It must be in the light of this that the ministers are not saying a word about dissolving the toddy cooperatives, established by the LDF government, though this was one of its threats during the election campaign. The UDF seems to have had no idea that registered societies working according to law cannot be dissolved. Thus, the UDF liquor policy remains vague, varying from party to party within the alliance and from leader to leader.

With the prominent leaders of the main partner of the UDF, the Congress, openly coming out against the police policy being followed by the government and the prevailing law and order situation in the state, there is almost little need for the Opposition to say anything. One of the main complainants is the president of the KPCC; another the former chief minister and godfather of the Congress party in Kerala, K Karunakaran.

While the congress workers' demonstrations against the police policy, even attacking the police and police stations, has almost become a law and order problem in itself, the chief minister is not opening his mouth to comment on these developments. Karunakaran is in an all-out condemnation campaign against the police, but the chief minister repeats like a parrot: " I am not ready for a tussle with him". - the same mantra he seems to be chanting on all issues.

The Opposition complaints about the police are of a different order - a very serious charge about Anthony's police policy is that the police are controlled by extra-constitutional powers in the state, and used as an instrument to persecute political opponents.. The atrocities and cruelties visited on the students, including girls, of the University College, Thiruvananthapuram, is only one example. Antony seems to have forgotten that he was baptized into politics through student work, but now is not ready to open his holy mouth to condemn the police atrocities on the students.

At Pathanapuram in Kollam district, the police arrested a young man just on the basis of rumors and scandals spread by certain interested parties. They persecuted him to such an extent that after his release he committed suicide, along with his young, pregnant wife. Naturally the people protested and were met with ferocious violence.

At Koyilandy in Kozhikode district, the police, including the top officials of the district, exhibited its madness at the District Youth Festival. Even the Deputy Director of Education was under threat of assault and arrest from the police merely on the ground that there is a Court direction regarding the use of microphone amplifiers in public, thus denying the students the right to stage their histrionic talents in an official competition.

The UDF of course enjoys a majority in the legislature, with the support of 99 members out of 140. On the force of this majority Antony has developed the tone of a dictator in his words and deeds, even stalling assembly legislation. The Opposition was not permitted by the Speaker to move an adjournment motion on the question of denial of the sanctioned loans to lakhs of beneficiaries for construction of their houses. Whereupon, when the leader of the Opposition stood up to announce boycott of the assembly proceedings, the Speaker cut off his microphone.

This resulted in a strong protest, so a story was concocted that three legislators of the opposition assaulted a minister, and Antony moved a motion to suspend the concerned members from the Assembly for the whole session. The Opposition demand for an examination of the videotapes to ascertain whether the charge of assault was true, was not permitted. The Assembly session was held up for more than two weeks.

Why this suspension of Opposition members from the whole session of the assembly on such flimsy and concocted grounds? The answer lies in the dealings of Antony and his interested groups in the appointment of the consultants to the drinking water project in collaboration with Japan. The international tender was annulled in order to appoint a vested agency known as the PCI. When this was exposed before the assembly, the chief minister threatened he would teach the Opposition a lesson, and hence the suspension.

• The People's Plan has been considerably curtailed by the UDF government, and its funds reduced by 16 per cent, and the first installment of the annual plan has not so far been released.
• The District Rural Development Authority has been revived to deprive the district panchayats of their power and authority.
• The SC/ST Development Fund has been taken away from the Panchayats and the authority to expend the fund given back to the bureaucracy.
• The Urban Development Authorities have been revived to outshine the city corporations.
• The Electricity Regulatory Authority has been formally established to deprive the KSEB and the government of the power to arbitrarily fix tariffs.

• The tourism sector has been almost completely privatised.

• The self-reliance group schemes under the cooperative sector have been dissolved.
• Ration subsidies have been totally abandoned.
• The government has virtually stopped the conservation of most agricultural products. Had it been sincere in the conservation of rubber it would not have avoided RUBCO, which has a creditable record of exporting 74,932 metric tonnes of rubber. The tragedy resulting from the stoppage of paddy conservation can be seen from the scenario in Palakkad, which is the paddy reservoir of the state, where so far, six paddy peasants have committed suicide. Debt and the consequent inability to lead a respectable life, is the cause of the many such suicides.

The UDF government has given a "very fine" gift to the unemployed youth. Already despondent and desperate without a source of living, they have been presented with a "total ban" on appointments, and the UDF is further thinking of raising the retirement age, which will only aggravate the situation.

The Antony government is treating every section in the society as its enemy. It has virtually declared a war on the government employees and teachers rejecting their Dearness Allowance (DA) during the current year, citing financial crisis as the reason. The government schools are being threatened of closure saying they have become burdensome. It is funny that in a democratic set up a government declares that its schools are running at loss. What is the profit it expects to get from the schools? Antony and his colleagues have to answer this question.

Another worrying aspect is the undue allegiance being shown by the government to the chauvinistic, communal, casteist forces that helped the UDF come to power. They have come to direct the government policies. The PDP and NDF parties have taken the friendship with the UDF as license to commit religious and communal crimes in the state. Today, the prominent parties in the UDF have become the most criminal law breakers of the state.

The internecine group wars within the Congress party have led to a lot of law and order problems. Even police stations are not free from the group attacks of Congressmen. The Indian Union of Muslim League (IUML) has unleashed a reign of terror in places where it is a force to be reckoned with. The IUML workers of Kasarkod celebrated the appointment of Cherkalam Abdulla as a minister in the cabinet by criminally assaulting the people of Padanna and Cheruvathur villages. In Thaliparamba and in Nadapuram the IUML crimes have been already brought to light by the media. Hundreds have lost their shelters. A section of the IUML has virtually absorbed the terrorist groups of the minority community for narrow political mileage.

This display of brutal arrogance by the powers that be in different parts of the state should be an eye opener to all patriotic and democratic and secular forces of the state.

Infights within the UDF have become so rampant that the ministers are quarrelling among themselves openly. Even the father and his son are quarreling in one party. The ministers, in fact, do not find any time to govern except to fight and then attempt to patch up. Basically theirs is a war to share the loot of the election and the consequent government. If at all they find any time they spend it for corruption and crime.

The face of the Antony government has become an ugly phenomenon within a short span of six months. The Adivasi drama under Janu and the suspension of the Opposition members for the entire session of the Assembly were all part of the vain attempt to conceal this ugly face. But the people are wiser. These gimmicks will not pay off. If a referendum were to be held at the completion of the six months, the UDF would have to taste the most bitter defeat in its history. This destiny is awaiting Antony. It has been the destiny of all dictators, anti-people demagogues and worthless political traders. People are waiting for an earliest opportunity to see this ignominious bunch of ministers and their aides off their governmental seats.